Strategy would be using minimal detergent, maximum elbow grease, a sacrificial towel and rinse thoroughly with water when finished. I just want the rock to be nice and clean afterwards and not trash the environment for other future generations to enjoy (haha, probably as an extra lane for their car).

I think that the reason I got into climbing was because of the opportunities offered by the sport to travel the world and scrub exhaust residue off poxy little crumbleblocks which are situated within 5m of a major road.

Actually, that's only half of the story. I also dreamed of climbing disintegrating choss in Melbourne above a landing of discarded needles.

42ml of rainfall yesterday, rain again today, new (rain) cave mostly dry (some seepage, but will hold up nicely after light/moderate).

Rock climbing = fail, what because I logged off chockie, went outside & did something that involved climbing (scoping new lines, spraying a bit earths choice GP cleaner, washing with water and dabbing with paper towels).

It was a fun arvo, and will offer about 10 boulder probs from easy --> mutant.

Rock is actually well above average for sydney chossstone, but yeah being 5m from the road dosnt help it's appeal, however being a stones throw from a river does :)

Its good to have new options instead of sessioning the same hunks of rock that I was hugging 10+ years ago.

Hero, I will send u a post card from NZ next month when I'm scrubbing up a 'new' pile of choss in a sea of 10000 boulders.

I was thinking about this on the weekend. Keep in mind that for no particular reason I just one day started to climb things. This was probably about 6 months before I'd ever walked into a climbing store. Anyway, I remember the first time I ever saw a guidebook with lines and routes and grades and shit and I remember even more clearly thinkin this is wack. You just look at whatever you wanna climb and climb it. All the other shit just makes it confusing.

I climbed a few things solo on the weekend around Melbourne and the climbing was generally shit or easy but f--- it was fun doing it wrong.

So the whole reason I'm tellin you this Damo is that I had to clean rat shit, piss and grease off a beam on the underside of a bridge that I self belayed off of on the weekend. And in my sad and sorry little existence it was strangely satisfying.

On 12/06/2012 arniearms wrote:>There's a sneaky bouldering rain cave next to a busy road on the Sydney>Northshore, rock good, climbing good, spooge bad. >>Rock is mostly very solid, smooth slopey ledges. The problem is the rock>is covered in exhaust particles that leaves a greasy feel to the rock.>>>With all this rain lately I was thinking of spending a few hours cleaning>up problems.>>Has anyone tried cleaning product on rock before (in this case to remove>road grime), I dont think just plain water will work in this case as the>grease is a build up of layers over many years.>>At the moment I can think of 3 cleaning options:>>* Dishwash>* Floor cleaner (eg earths choice grey water safe)>* Carwash (non waxing)>>Strategy would be using minimal detergent, maximum elbow grease, a sacrificial>towel and rinse thoroughly with water when finished. I just want the rock>to be nice and clean afterwards and not trash the environment for other>future generations to enjoy (haha, probably as an extra lane for their>car).>>Anyone tried anything like this? Alternatives etc...>>>
I reckon the secret with stuff like this arniearms is to just go out and do ya thing. Don't even bother mentioning it on Chockstone and have fun in ya shitty little cave that no one else climbs at. Clean it, climb it, smoke a bong in it, whatever. Sounds like good times.

On 12/06/2012 arniearms wrote:>>Hero, I will send u a post card from NZ next month when I'm scrubbing>up a 'new' pile of choss in a sea of 10000 boulders.>
Castle Hill? Excellent, you'll have an awesome time. Make sure to go back to your exhaust boulder immediately upon your return, and see if it still seems like a worthwhile objective. It's amazing how extended exposure to good climbing will reset your threshold for the minimum acceptable standard.

>So the whole reason I'm tellin you this Damo is that I had to clean rat>shit, piss and grease off a beam on the underside of a bridge that I self>belayed off of on the weekend. And in my sad and sorry little existence>it was strangely satisfying. >
Shorty, I know we disagree a little on spiritual stuff, but you gotta listen to me on this. We were not put on this earth.......well, we weren't put on this earth at all, it's evolution and all that shit, but that isn't the point!

.......if we were, in some way, put here, it sure as fuch was not done so that we could scrub piss and rat shit off some poxy bridge! There are better ways to spend your climbing life, go find 'em!

Ha, it's a slow week on chocky, wasnt expecting too serious an answer, but this kind of thing surely has crossed other climbers minds (eg cleaning birdshit off a climb). Anyway I provide a solution (GP eco friendly cleaner), and the usual chockstone antics provided amusement.

>I reckon the secret with stuff like this arniearms is to just go out and>do ya thing. Don't even bother mentioning it on Chockstone and have fun>in ya shitty little cave that no one else climbs at. Clean it, climb it,>smoke a bong in it, whatever. Sounds like good times.

On 13/06/2012 One Day Hero wrote:>Shorty, I know we disagree a little on spiritual stuff, but you gotta>listen to me on this. We were not put on this earth.......well, we weren't>put on this earth at all, it's evolution and all that shit, but that isn't>the point!

ODH you are wrong, you are so wrong!

If you haven't seen Prometheous yet you should get on it. It'll answer all the 'evolution' questions once and for all! ;)

EDIT: I'm with Shortman on this, climbing is fun. It doesn't need to be Araps/Gramps style radness to qualify as fun. I say clean it, climb it and laugh about climbing in your own private Idaho....

On 13/06/2012 BundyBear wrote:>Has anyone checked out the roadside bouldering next to the Helensburgh>exit sign on the F6 freeway. Pretty Cool ! Good stop for a piss break>after 6 subbies on the way home from Nowra..

Might need stronger cleaning products than those used by Arniearms if others have also used it as a toilet...